Measuring Digital Marketing Performance

GA4 + GTM + GSC • UTMs • Key Events

Jarrod Griffin

College of Business Administration - Cal Poly Pomona

2/10/2026

Greetings and Introductions

  • Jae Jung, Ph.D., Professor of Marketing, Director of CCIDM
  • Jarrod Griffin, Master’s Student - Digital Marketing, Graduate Fellow, CCIDM

Introduction & Orientation

  • The Objective: Moving from marketing theory to Marketing Operations.
  • The Career Impact: Why this technical skillset matters for your future role.
  • The Goal: Gaining the ability to not just plan campaigns, but measure and optimize them.

Agenda

  • Introduction & Orientation (5 min)
  • Conceptual Framework (10 Min): The Data Ecosystem (GA4, GTM, GSC)
  • Technical Implementation (25 Min): Setting up the environment
  • Search Visibility (15 Min): Google Search Console integration
  • Campaign Tracking (15 Min): Mastering UTM parameters
  • Performance Measurement (10 Min): Defining and tracking Key Events

Learning Outcomes:

After taking this workshop, participants should be able to:

  1. Explain how Google Analytics 4 (GA4), Google Tag Manager (GTM), and Google Search Console (GSC) work together to measure and improve digital marketing performance.
  2. Configure Google Analytics 4 (GA4) for a website using Google Tag Manager (GTM) to ensure reliable baseline tracking.
  3. Validate and troubleshoot GA4 event tracking using GTM Preview/Debug tools to confirm accurate event collection.
  1. Configure Google Search Console (GSC) and connect to GA4 to incorporate organic search query and landing-page performance data.
  2. Build standardized UTM parameters to track marketing campaigns consistently across channels and avoid attribution errors.
  3. Set up and interpret GA4 Key Events to measure marketing outcomes.

Workshop Prep

Note

Optional to Follow Along; Required to Deploy

Trinity of Google Data Collection

1. Google Tag Manager (GTM): “The Brain”

2. Google Analytics 4 (GA4): “The Database”

3. Google Search Console (GSC): “The Visibility Health Check”

How they Connect

Diagram showing data flow between GTM, GA4, and GSC.

How they connect

Rule #1: We do not put GA4 code directly on the site Rule #2: We put GTM code on the site Rule #3: GTM sends the data to GA4

  • Install GTM on the site (not GA4 code directly)
  • GTM sends events to GA4
  • Link GSC to GA4 for organic query + landing-page reporting

Technical Implementation (overview)

  • Step 1: The Setup . . .
  • Step 2: The Quarto Integration . . .
  • Step 3: The GA4 Configuration Tag . . .
  • Step 4: Publishing . . .
  • Step 5: Validation

Step 1 — The Setup

  • Create GA4 property
  • Create a GTM account + container
  • Confirm you have:
    • Admin access
    • GA4 Measurement ID (G-XXXXXXXX)
Visual placeholder: GA4 property + Data Stream screen

Step 2 — Quarto Integration

Action: copy the GTM snippets

  • <script> goes in Head
  • <noscript> goes in Body

include-in-header.html

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